Rev. R. E. Bluett; Founded Catholic Broadcast Agency

The Rev. Raymond E. Bluett, 65, who in 1966 established the first National Catholic Office for Radio and Television, the official broadcasting agency of the Catholic Bishops of the United States, died Monday at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage.

A spokesman for St. Francis of Assisi Church in La Quinta, where Bluett was pastor emeritus, said he died of heart failure.

Bluett flew 33 combat missions with the U.S. Air Force during World War II. He was ordained in 1959 and taught at St. John’s University from 1963 to 1967. In 1969 he organized the Institute for Religious Communications at Loyola University in New Orleans as a national training center for priests and lay people serving as local radio and television representatives of the church.